Vector Joint Encoding/Decoding Method and Vector Joint Encoder/Decoder

ABSTRACT

A vector joint encoding/decoding method and a vector joint encoder/decoder are provided, more than two vectors are jointly encoded, and an encoding index of at least one vector is split and then combined between different vectors, so that encoding idle spaces of different vectors can be recombined, thereby facilitating saving of encoding bits, and because an encoding index of a vector is split and then shorter split indexes are recombined, thereby facilitating reduction of requirements for the bit width of operating parts in encoding/decoding calculation.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/486,683, filed on Apr. 13, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/192,405, filed on Jun. 24, 2016, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,704,498, which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/547,677, filed on Nov. 19, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No.9,404,826. which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/950,018, filed on Jul. 24, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,930,200, whichis a continuation of International Patent Application No.PCT/CN2011/083237, filed on Nov. 30, 2011, which claims priority toChinese Patent Application No. 201110028694.6, filed on Jan. 26, 2011,the afore-mentioned patent applications are hereby incorporated byreference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a vector joint encoding/decoding methodand a vector joint encoder/decoder.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

When a signal is processed, generally the signal may be divided intomultiple vectors. For example, referring to FIG. 1, the signal samplingis classified, several sampling values are classified as a group, whichmay be referred to as a vector, and the number of this group of samplingvalues is referred to as the dimension of the vector. In a voice encoderbased on a code excited linear prediction (CELP) model, generallyseveral pulses are used to denote quasi-white noise excitation. In orderto reduce the complexity of the encoder, generally an input signal isdivided into several sub-frames to be processed, and during processing afixed code book, generally a signal of each sub-frame is further dividedinto several tracks. Based on the foregoing understanding about thevector, it may be regarded that sampling points on a track may form amulti-dimensional vector. For example, for a track having sixteenpositions, it is assumed that a signal sampling case on a track isdescribed using a pulse, and a value may be represented as [−1, −5, 0,−5, 12, 0, . . . , 0]. From the perspective of the pulse, it is denotedthat this track has four non-zero pulses, that is, a first position hasa pulse with amplitude being 1, and a symbol being “−”; a secondposition has a pulse with amplitude being 5, and a symbol being “−”; athird position has a pulse with amplitude being zero, and the rest maybe deduced by analogy. From the perspective of the vector, a16-dimensional vector has four non-zero components.

It is well-known that, in the voice encoding field, a voice encoderbased on the CELP model is applied very widely, such as G.729, GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (GSM) and G.723.1, which are alreadywidely applied in various digital signal processors (DSP), embeddeddevices, mobile phones and personal computers (PC). Compared with othertypes of voice encoders, the voice encoder/decoder based on the CELPmodel can achieve good voice quality in a case of an extremely low coderate, and still have excellent performance in a case of a high coderate.

In the vector encoding technology, usually an algebraic code book isused to perform quantization encoding on a residual signal afteradaptive filtering. After information of a position and a symbol of anoptimal algebraic code book pulse on a track is obtained throughsearching, a corresponding index value is obtained through encodingcalculation, so that a decoding end can reestablish a pulse sequenceaccording to the index value. Under the premise of ensuring losslessreestablishment, to reduce bits, which are needed for an encoding indexvalue, as much as possible is one of main objectives of the research anddevelopment of an algebraic code book pulse encoding method.

The following takes an example of a preferable encoding method in voiceencoding an adaptive multi-rate wideband (AMR_WB+) encoding method, tointroduce a specific encoding method adopted for an existing algebraiccode book pulse. According to the difference between encoding coderates, 1 to N pulses may be encoded on each track, and it is assumedthat each track has M=2^(m) positions, and procedures for encoding oneto six pulses on each track in AMR_WB+ are respectively described asfollows.

(1) One pulse is encoded on each track.

Because each track has 2^(m) positions, a position index of a pulse oneach track needs to be encoded with m bits, and a symbol index of thepulse needs to be encoded with 1 bit. An index value for encoding onepulse with a symbol is I_(1p)(m)=p+s×2^(m), where p∈[0, 2^(m)−1] is aposition index of the pulse; s is a symbol index of the pulse, and whena symbol of the pulse is positive, s is set to 0, and when the symbol ofthe pulse is negative, s is set to 1; I_(1p)∈[0, 2^(m+1)−1].

The number of bits needed for encoding one pulse on each track is m+1.

(2) Two pulses are encoded on each track

According to a result of (1), m+1 bits are needed for encoding one pulseon each track, and m bits are needed for encoding a position index ofanother pulse; because the pulse order is not particularly needed, asymbol of another pulse may be denoted through a size relationshipobtained by arranging position indexes of the pulses. An index value forencoding two pulses is I_(2p)(m)=p1+I_(1p0)×2^(m)=p1+p0×2^(m)+s×2^(2m),where p0 and p1∈[0, 2^(m)−1] are position indexes of two pulses,respectively; s is a symbol index of pulse p0; a specific denotationrule for a symbol of pulse p1 is p0<p1 denotes that symbols of the twopulses are the same, and p0>p1 denotes that the symbols of the twopulses are opposite; I_(2p)∈[0, 2^(2m+1)−1].

The number of bits needed for encoding two pulses on each track is 2m+1.

(3) Three pulses are encoded on each track.

Each track is divided into two sections, Section A and Section B, andeach section includes 2^(m)−1 positions. A certain section at leastincludes two pulses, and according to a result of (2), 2×(m−1)+1=2m−1bits are needed for encoding the section; another pulse searches on theentire track, and according to a result of (1), m+1 bits are needed;furthermore, one bit is further needed to indicate a section includingtwo pulses. An index value for encoding three pulses isI_(3p)(m)=I_(2p)(m−1)+k×2^(2m)−1+I_(1p)(m)×2^(2m), where k is an indexof Section; I_(3p)∈[0, 2^(3m+1)−1].

The number of bits needed for encoding three pulses on each track is3m+1.

(4) Four pulses are encoded on each track.

Each track is divided into two sections, Section A and Section B, andeach section includes 2^(m−1) positions. Cases of combinations of thenumbers of pulses included in each section are shown in the followingtable:

Number of pulses in Number of pulses in Number of Type Section A SectionB bits needed 0 0 4 4 m−3 1 1 3 4 m−2 2 2 2 4 m−2 3 3 1 4 m−2 4 4 0 4m−3

In the above table, the basis of the number of bits needed, whichcorrespond to each type is that, for type 0 and type 4, a method similarto (4) is adopted in a section having four pulses, but the number ofpulses for performing whole searching is two, it is equivalent toI_(2p)(m−2)+k×2^(2m-3)+I_(2p)(m−1)×2^(2m)−2; for type 1, it isequivalent to I_(1p)(m−1)+I_(3p)(m−1)×2^(m); for type 2, it isequivalent to I_(2p)(m−1)+I_(2p)(m−1)×2^(2m)−1; and for type 3, it isequivalent to I_(3p)(m−1)+I_(1p)(m−1)×2^(3m)−2.

Type 0 and type 4 are regarded as a kind of possible case, type 1 totype 3 each are used as a case, and totally there are four cases;therefore, two bits are needed to denote a corresponding case, thus type1 to type 3 all need 4m−2+2=4m bits; moreover, for the case includingtype 0 and type 4, one bit is further needed for distinguishing, andtherefore, type 0 and type 4 need 4m−3+2+1=4m bits.

The number of bits needed for encoding four pulses on each track is 4m.

(5) Five pulses are encoded on each track.

Each track is divided into two sections, Section A and Section B, andeach section includes 2^(m−1) positions. A certain section at leastincludes three pulses, and according to a result of (3), 3×(m−1)+1=3m−2bits are needed for encoding the section; the rest two pulses search onthe entire track, and according to a result of (2), 2m+1 bits areneeded; furthermore, one bit is further needed to indicate a sectionincluding three pulses. An index value for encoding five pulses isI_(5p)(m)=I_(3p)(m−1)+k×2^(3m-2)+I_(1p)(m)×2^(3m-1).

The number of bits needed for encoding five pulses on each track is 5m.

(6) Six pulses are encoded on each track.

Each track is divided into two sections, Section A and Section B, andeach section includes 2^(m−1) positions. Cases of combinations of thenumbers of pulses included in each section are shown in the followingtable:

Number of pulses in Number of pulses in Number of Type Section A SectionB bits needed 0 0 6 6 m−5 1 1 5 6 m−5 2 2 4 6 m−5 3 3 3 6 m−4 4 4 2 6m−5 5 5 1 6 m−5 6 6 0 6 m−5

In the above table, the basis of the number of bits needed, whichcorrespond to each type, may be deduced following (4), and is notrepeated again.

Type 0 and type 6, type 1 and type 5, type 2 and type 4 each areregarded as a possible case, type 3 is used as a case independently, andtotally there are four cases; therefore, two bits are needed to denote acorresponding case, and type 3 needs 6m−4+2=6m−2 bits; for those casesincluding a combined type, one bit is further needed for distinguishing,and therefore, other types except for type 3 require 6m−5+2+1=6m−2 bits.

The number of bits needed for encoding six pulses on each track is 6m−2.

In the process of proposing the present invention, it is found that, Inthe algebraic pulse encoding method provided by AMR_WB+, an encodinglogic similar to recursion is adopted to split a case of encoding alarge number of pulses into several cases of encoding a small number ofpulses for processing, in which the calculation complexity is large, andmeanwhile, with the increase of the number of pulses encoded on a track,the redundancy of an encoding index is gradually accumulated, therebyeasily causing waste of encoding bits.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention provides a vector joint encodingmethod capable of helping to save encoding bits.

A vector joint encoding method includes calculating an encoding index(Ind_(t)) of each vector, where a subscript t denotes a t^(th) vector,t∈[0, T−1], and T is the number of vectors and is an integer greaterthan or equal to 2; splitting at least one Ind_(t) at least once into atleast two sections, where the splitting at least once is equivalent tosplitting the Ind_(t) into two split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1)according to a set factor (SLF_(t)), the SLF_(t) is a positive integer,the Ind_(t0) denotes a serial number of an interval to which the Ind_(t)belongs, the Ind_(t1) denotes a serial number of the Ind_(t) in theinterval to which the Ind_(t) belongs, the length of the interval is notgreater than the SLF_(t), and Ind_(t)≤Ind_(t0)×SLF_(t)+Ind_(t); combinea split index of at least one vector and split indexes or encodingindexes of other vectors to generate a combined index Ind_(SLF); andencode according to the combined index and other uncombined splitindexes.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a multi-stagecascade encoding method based on the foregoing vector joint encodingmethod.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide a decoding method andan encoder/decoder corresponding to the foregoing encoding method.

One aspect of present disclosure discloses a vector joint encodingmethod, comprising calculating an encoding index Ind_(t) of each vector,wherein a subscript t denotes a t^(th) vector, t∈[0, T−1], and T is thenumber of vectors and is an integer greater than or equal to 2;splitting at least one Ind_(t) at least once into at least two sections,wherein the splitting at least once is equivalent to splitting theInd_(t) into two split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to a setfactor SLF_(t), the SLF_(t) is a positive integer, the Ind_(t0) denotesa serial number of an interval to which the Ind_(t) belongs, the Ind_(t)denotes a serial number of the Ind_(t) in the interval to which theInd_(t) belongs, the length of the interval is not greater than theSLF_(t), and Ind_(t)<Ind_(t0)×SLF_(t)+Ind_(t1); combining a split indexof at least one vector and split indexes or encoding indexes of othervectors to generate a combined index Ind_(SLF); and performing encodingaccording to the combined index and other uncombined split indexes.

Where the vector is represented as pulse distribution on a track, andthe encoding index is an index used for indicating the pulsedistribution on the track.

Wherein the splitting the Ind_(t) into two split indexes Ind_(t0) andInd_(t1) according to a set factor SLF_(t) isInd_(t0)=Int(Ind_(t)/SLF_(t)), wherein Int( ) denotes rounding down toan integer, and Ind_(t1)=Ind_(t)%SLF_(t), wherein % denotes taking aremainder.

Wherein SLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)), wherein K_(t) is a positive integer, and thecombining a split index of at least one vector and split indexes orencoding indexes of other vectors to generate a combined index Ind_(SLF)is, for a vector t providing a split index to participate incombination, selecting the Ind_(t0) to participate in combination; or,SLF_(t)=Int(Ind_(t,max)/2̂(K_(t))), wherein Ind_(t,max) denotes a maximalvalue of the Ind_(t), and the combining a split index of at least onevector and split indexes or encoding indexes of other vectors togenerate a combined index (Ind_(SLF)) is, for the vector t providing asplit index to participate in combination, selecting the Ind_(t1) toparticipate in combination.

Wherein K_(t)=K_(t,max)−2, or K_(t)=K_(t,max)−3, or K_(t)=K_(t,max)−4,wherein the K_(t,max) is a length of a bit sequence of the Ind_(t,max).

Wherein the combining a split index of at least one vector and splitindexes or encoding indexes of other vectors to generate a combinedindex (Ind_(SLF)) is, for a vector t providing a split index toparticipate in combination, selecting a split index capable of embodyingspace occupancy characteristics of the Ind_(t) to participate incombination, wherein being capable of embodying space occupancycharacteristics of the Ind_(t) refers to that, compared with other splitindexes, an occupancy rate of a value range of a selected split indexfor an encoding space is the closest to an occupancy rate of a valuerange of the Ind_(t) for the encoding space.

Wherein the splitting the Ind_(t) into two split indexes Ind_(t0) andInd_(t1) according to a set factor SLF_(t) is selecting a value of bitsof the Ind_(t) as the Ind_(t0), the bits being located at a setposition, and selecting a value of bits at a remaining position as theInd_(t1), wherein SLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)), the number of the bits at the setposition is K_(t0), the number of the bits at the remaining position isK_(t), K_(t0)+K_(t)=K_(t,max), K_(t,max) is a length of a bit sequenceof Ind_(t,max), and the Ind_(t,max) denotes a maximal value of theInd_(t).

Wherein combining split indexes from at least two vectors to generate acombined index (Ind_(SLF)) is, for a vector t providing a split index toparticipate in combination, selecting, in a bit sequence with a lengthbeing K_(t,max), a split index of the Ind_(t) to participate incombination, wherein the split index at least comprises a value of thehighest two bits.

Wherein the performing encoding according to the combined index andother uncombined split indexes is splitting the combined index into T1recombined indexes Ind_(t0′) according to a set value range, wherein T1is less than or equal to the number of vectors generating the combinedindex, a value range of at least one Ind_(t0′) is greater than a valuerange of the split index of a corresponding vector t, wherein the splitindex participates in combination, and a value range of at least oneInd_(t0′) is less than the value range of the split index of thecorresponding vector t, wherein the split index participates incombination; and respectively combining each recombined index and anuncombined split index of a corresponding vector and then performingencoding, and if a vector without being allocated a recombined indexexists, encoding an uncombined split index of the vector.

Wherein the splitting the combined index into T1 recombined indexesInd_(t0′) according to a set value range is splitting a total lengthK_(SLF) of the bit sequence of the combined index into T1 sectionsaccording to a set length, wherein a value of each section correspondsto one Ind_(t0′), the K_(SLF) is the length of the bit sequence of anInd_(SLF,max), and the Ind_(SLF,max) denotes a maximal value of theInd_(SLF).

Wherein the splitting the Ind_(t) into two split indexes Ind_(t0) andInd_(t1) according to a set factor SLF_(t) is, in the bit sequence withthe length being K_(t,max), selecting a value of K_(t0) bits, startingfrom the highest bit, of the Ind_(t), as the Ind_(t0), and selecting avalue of remaining bits as the Ind_(t1), wherein SLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)),K_(t0)+K_(t)=K_(t,max), the K_(t,max) is the length of the bit sequenceof the Ind_(t,max), and the Ind_(t,max) denotes a maximal value of theInd_(t); and the combining a split index of at least one vector andsplit indexes or encoding indexes of other vectors to generate acombined index Ind_(SLF) is, for a vector t needs to provide a splitindex, selecting the Ind_(t0) to participate in combination; and thesplitting the total length K_(SLF) of the bit sequence of the combinedindex into T1 sections according to a set length is splitting theK_(SLF) according to a K_(t0) value used by the vector t generating thecombined index, wherein the number of bits split by each Ind_(t0′)correspondingly is less than or equal to the K_(t0) value used by thecorresponding vector t.

Wherein the performing encoding according to the combined index andother uncombined split indexes is comparing the combined index Ind_(SLF)and adjusting a threshold value THR, whereinTHR≤2̂(K_(SLF))−Ind_(SLF,max), the K_(SLF) is the length of the bitsequence of the Ind_(SLF,max), and the Ind_(SLF,max) denotes a maximalvalue of the Ind_(SLF); if the Ind_(SLF) is less than the THR, encodingthe Ind_(SLF) using a first number of encoding bits; otherwise, encodingthe Ind_(SLF) added with an offset value THR₀ using a second number ofencoding bits, wherein THR≤THR₀≤2̂(K_(SLF))−Ind_(SLF,max), the firstnumber is less than the second number, the second number is less than orequal to the K_(SLF), and the first number and the second number areboth positive integers; and encoding other uncombined split indexes.

One aspect of the present disclosure discloses a vector joint pulseencoding method, comprising grouping vectors participating in jointencoding, wherein each group at least comprises two vectors; in eachgroup, calculating an encoding index of each vector; splitting at leasttwo encoding indexes; splitting each encoding index at least once intoat least two sections, wherein splitting at least once is equivalent tosplitting an encoding index into two one-stage split indexes accordingto a set one-stage factor, one one-stage split index denotes serialnumbers of several intervals with a length not greater than a set value,the other one-stage split index denotes a serial number of the encodingindex in an interval to which the encoding index belongs; and combiningone-stage split indexes from at least two vectors to generate aone-stage combined index; starting from m=2, repeating the followingoperation of generating an m-stage combined index until m=M; splittingat least two (m−1)-stage combined indexes, wherein m∈[2, M], M is aninteger greater than or equal to 2; splitting each (m−1)-stage combinedindex at least once into at least two sections, wherein splitting atleast once is equivalent to splitting an (m−1)-stage combined index intotwo m-stage split indexes according to a set m-stage factor; andcombining m-stage split indexes from at least two (m−1)-stage combinedindexes to generate an m-stage combined index; and encoding according tothe M-stage combined index and other uncombined one-stage to (M−1)-stagesplit indexes.

Wherein the one-stage split index used for generating the one-stagecombined index is a value intercepted from a set bit of a correspondingencoding index starting from the highest bit; and the m-stage splitindex used for generating the m-stage combined index is a valueintercepted from a set bit of a corresponding (m−1)-stage combined indexstarting from the highest bit.

One aspect of the present disclosure discloses a vector joint pulsedecoding method, comprising acquiring a joint code, and acquiring, fromthe joint code, a combined index and an uncombined split indexcorresponding to a vector; splitting the combined index into splitindexes corresponding to the vector, or splitting the combined indexinto a split index and an encoding index that correspond to the vector;for each vector participating in splitting the encoding index, splicing,according to a split manner of an encoding end, a split index notparticipating in combination and a split index participating incombination of the vector to generate the encoding index of the vector;and reestablishing the vector according to the encoding index of thevector for each vector.

Wherein the acquiring, from the joint code, a combined index and anuncombined split index corresponding to each vector is extracting, fromthe joint code, a code corresponding to each vector; splitting arecombined index and an uncombined split index from the code of eachvector; and if a code comprising no recombined index exists, directlyobtaining an uncombined split index corresponding to a correspondingvector; and splicing all recombined indexes into a combined indexaccording to the split manner of the encoding end.

One aspect of the present disclosure discloses a vector joint pulsedecoding method, comprising acquiring a joint code, and acquiring, fromthe joint code, an M-stage combined index, an uncombined m-stage splitindex corresponding to each (m−1)-stage combined index, and anuncombined one-stage split index corresponding to each vector, wherein Mis an integer greater than or equal to 2, and m∈[2, M]; starting fromm=M, repeating the following operation of generating an (m−1)-stagecombined index until m=2; splitting each m-stage combined index into anm-stage split index corresponding to each (m−1)-stage combined index forgenerating the m-stage combined index; and for each (m−1)-stage combinedindex, splicing, according to a split manner of an encoding end, anm-stage split index not participating in combination and an m-stagesplit index participating in combination of the (m−1)-stage combinedindex to generate the (m−1)-stage combined index according to a splitmanner of an encoding end; splitting each one-stage combined index intoa one-stage split index corresponding to each vector in a vector groupfor generating the one-stage combined index; and for each vector in eachvector group, splicing, according to the split manner of the encodingend, a one-stage split index not participating in combination and aone-stage split index participating in combination of the vector togenerate an encoding index; and reestablishing the vector according tothe encoding index for each vector in each vector group.

One aspect of the present disclosure discloses a vector joint pulseencoder, comprising an encoding index calculation unit configured tocalculate an encoding index (Ind_(t)) of each vector, wherein asubscript t denotes a t^(th) vector, t∈[0, T−1], and T is an integergreater than or equal to 2; a vector index splitting unit configured tosplit at least one Ind_(t) at least once into at least two sections,wherein splitting at least once is equivalent to splitting the Ind_(t)into two split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to a set factorSLF_(t), the SLF_(t) is a positive integer, the Ind_(t0) denotes aserial number of an interval to which the Ind_(t) belongs, the Ind_(t1)denotes a serial number of the Ind_(t) in the interval to which theInd_(t) belongs, a length of the interval is not greater than theSLF_(t), and Ind_(t)≤Ind_(t0)×SLF_(t)+Ind_(t1); an index combinationunit configured to combine a split index of at least one vector andsplit indexes or encoding indexes of other vectors to generate acombined index (Ind_(SLF)); and an encoding unit configured to performencoding according to the combined index and other uncombined splitindexes.

Wherein the encoding unit comprises a recombining sub-unit configured tosplit the combined index into T1 recombined indexes Ind_(t0′) accordingto a set value range, wherein T1 is less than or equal to the number ofvectors generating the combined index, a value range of at least oneInd_(t0′) is greater than a value range of the split index,participating in combination, of a corresponding vector t, and a valuerange of at least one Ind_(t0′) is less than the value range of thesplit index, participating in combination, of the corresponding vectort; and an encoding sub-unit configured to combine each recombined indexand an uncombined split index of a corresponding vector respectively andthen perform encoding, and if a vector without being allocated arecombined index exists, encode an uncombined split index of the vector.

One aspect of the present disclosure discloses a vector joint pulseencoder, comprising a vector index calculation unit configured to groupvectors participating in joint encoding, wherein each group at leastcomprises two vectors; in each group, calculate an encoding index ofeach vector; split at least two encoding indexes; split each encodingindex at least once into at least two sections, wherein splitting atleast once is equivalent to splitting an encoding index into twoone-stage split indexes according to a set one-stage factor, oneone-stage split index denotes serial numbers of several intervals with alength not greater than a set value, the other one-stage split indexdenotes a serial number of the encoding index in an interval to whichthe encoding index belongs; and combine one-stage split indexes from atleast two vectors to generate a one-stage combined index; a cascadecalculation unit configured to, starting from m=2, repeat the followingoperation of generating an m-stage combined index until m=M; split atleast two (m−1)-stage combined indexes, wherein m∈[2, M], M is aninteger greater than or equal to 2; split each (m−1)-stage combinedindex at least once into at least two sections, wherein splitting atleast once is equivalent to splitting an (m−1)-stage combined index intotwo m-stage split indexes according to a set m-stage factor; and combinem-stage split indexes from at least two (m−1)-stage combined indexes togenerate an m-stage combined index; and an encoding unit configured toperform encode according to the M-stage combined index and otheruncombined one-stage to (M−1)-stage split indexes.

One aspect of the present disclosure discloses a vector joint pulsedecoder, comprising a decoding unit configured to acquire a joint code,and acquire, from the joint code, a combined index and an uncombinedsplit index corresponding to a vector; an index splitting unitconfigured to split the combined index into split indexes correspondingto the vector, or split the combined index into a split index and anencoding index that correspond to the vector; a vector indexreestablishing unit configured to, for each vector participating insplitting the encoding index, splice, according to a split manner of anencoding end, a split index not participating in combination and a splitindex participating in combination of the vector to generate theencoding index of the vector; and a vector reestablishing unitconfigured to reestablish the vector according to the encoding index ofthe vector for each vector.

Wherein the decoding unit comprises a decoding sub-unit configured toextract, from the joint code, a code corresponding to each vector; splita recombined index and an uncombined split index from the code of eachvector; and if a code comprising no recombined index exists, directlyobtain an uncombined split index corresponding to a correspondingvector; and a splicing sub-unit configured to splice all recombinedindexes into a combined index according to the split manner of theencoding end.

One aspect of the present disclosure discloses a vector joint pulsedecoder, comprising a decoding unit configured to acquire a joint code,and acquire, from the joint code, an M-stage combined index, anuncombined m-stage split index corresponding to each (m−1)-stagecombined index, and an uncombined one-stage split index corresponding toeach vector, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 2, andm∈[2, M]; a cascade recovering unit configured to, starting from m=M,repeat the following operation of generating an (m−1)-stage combinedindex until m=2; split each m-stage combined index into an m-stage splitindex corresponding to each (m−1)-stage combined index for generatingthe m-stage combined index; and for each (m−1)-stage combined index,splice, according to a split manner of an encoding end, an m-stage splitindex not participating in combination and an m-stage split indexparticipating in combination of the (m−1)-stage combined index togenerate the (m−1)-stage combined index; a vector index reestablishingunit configured to split each one-stage combined index into a one-stagesplit index corresponding to each vector in a vector group forgenerating the one-stage combined index; and for each vector in eachvector group, splice, according to the split manner of the encoding end,a one-stage split index not participating in combination and a one-stagesplit index participating in combination of the vector to generate anencoding index; and a vector reestablishing unit configured toreestablish the vector according to the encoding index for each vectorin each vector group.

In the embodiments of the present invention, more than two vectors arejointly encoded, and an encoding index of at least one vector is splitand then combined between different vectors, so that encoding idlespaces of different vectors can be recombined, thereby helping to saveencoding bits, and because an encoding index of a vector is split andthen shorter (compared with an index before splitting) split indexes arerecombined, thereby helping to reduce requirements for the bit width ofoperating parts in encoding/decoding calculation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of vector division of a signal;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of an encoding method according toEmbodiment 1 of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of an encoding method according toEmbodiment 2 of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of an encoding method according toEmbodiment 3 of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of an encoding method according toEmbodiment 4 of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of an encoding method according toEmbodiment 5 of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of a decoding method according toEmbodiment 6 of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart of a decoding method according toEmbodiment 7 of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic logic structural diagram of an encoder accordingto Embodiment 8 of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic logic structural diagram of an encoder accordingto Embodiment 9 of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic logic structural diagram of a decoder accordingto Embodiment 10 of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic logic structural diagram of a decoder accordingto Embodiment 11 of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a 4-track highest-4-bits jointencoding procedure based on an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a 4-track 2-stage-cascadehighest-8-bits joint encoding procedure based on an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

An embodiment of the present invention provides a vector joint encodingmethod, more than two vectors are jointly encoded, and an encoding indexof at least one vector is split and then combined between differentvectors, thereby saving encoding bits and reducing the length of dataparticipating in calculation. Embodiments of the present inventionfurther provide a vector joint decoding method and a vector jointencoder/decoder correspondingly.

In order to make the description concise and understandable, pulsedistribution on a track is used as an example for a vector below, andjoint encoding for multiple tracks is described to embody joint encodingfor multiple vectors. It is easily understood that, the presentinvention is not limited to encoding/decoding for track pulsedistribution, and as long as it is needed to perform encoding/decodingprocessing on multiple vectors formed of a group of data, the solutionprovided in the present invention may be adopted, and “track” and“pulse” merely endow data in a vector with a concrete meaning, and donot form a substantial limitation.

In a voice encoder, information about positions and symbols (if related)of all pulses on each track is obtained through code book searching, andthe information needs to be completely transferred to a decoding end, sothat the information about the positions and the symbols (if related) ofall the pulses can be uniquely recovered at the decoding end, andmeanwhile, in order to reduce a bit rate as much as possible, it isexpected to use bits as fewer as possible to transfer the information.

It can be known through theoretical analysis that, the permutation andcombination number of positions and symbols (if related) of all pulseson a same track is a minimal value of a codebook space, and the numberof corresponding encoding bits is a theoretical lower limit value. Thetotal number of positions and the total number of pulses on a track arefixed. As far as a case that the total number of positions and the totalnumber of pulses on a track are different values is concerned, thepermutation and combination number of positions and symbols of allpulses is not always an integer power of 2, and therefore thetheoretical lower limit value of the number of encoding bits is notalways an integer, and in this case, the actual number of encoding bitsfor single-track encoding is at least the integer section of thetheoretical lower limit value plus 1, so that occurrence of partial idlecodebook space is unavoidable. For example, Table 1 provides atheoretical lower limit value and an actual lower limit value of thenumber of encoding bits, and a situation of an idle space, which are ona track with the total number of positions being 16 in a case that thetotal number N of pulses needed to be encoded is 1 to 7 (that a pulsehas a symbol is taken into account).

TABLE 1 Number of bits (bit) needed Total Actual permutation lower limitand Theoretical value for Number of combination lower limit single-trackidle Idle N number value encoding combinations proportion 1 32 5 5 0 0 2512 9 9 0 0 3 5472 12.4179 13 2720 33.2% 4 44032 15.4263 16 21504 32.8%5 285088 18.1210 19 239200 45.6% 6 1549824 20.5637 21 547328 26.1% 77288544 22.7972 23 1100064 15.1%

It may be seen from Table 1 that, in a majority of cases, the actuallower limit value still brings about large waste of the codebook space,and therefore, the present invention proposes that, more than two tracksare jointly encoded, an encoding index of at least one track is splitinto at least two split indexes, and then a split index of a track andsplit indexes or encoding indexes of other tracks are combined and thenused for encoding.

This method is based on an idea as follows: joint encoding for more thantwo tracks may enable idle codebook spaces in single-track encoding tobe combined, and once combined idle spaces are sufficient, one actualencoding bit may be reduced. However, if encoding indexes on more thantwo tracks are directly combined, a final encoding length may be large,or even may exceed the bit width (such as 64 bits) generally used foroperating, and at this time, it is needed to design dedicatedcalculation processing procedure codes for operations of encoding ordecoding such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division,thereby resulting in increase of the processing complexity.

Therefore, it is taken into account that, an encoding index of at leastone track is split, inter-track combination is performed with at leastone split index, and in this way, inter-track idle spaces can becombined to a certain extent, and meanwhile, the length of a valueparticipating in operating is also reduced.

The theoretical analysis for the principle of the multi-track jointencoding of the present invention is provided above, and below, variouspreferable solutions are illustrated in detail with specificembodiments, respectively.

Embodiment 1

A track joint pulse encoding method, as shown in FIG. 2, includes thefollowing steps.

A1: Calculate an encoding index Ind_(t) of each track, where a subscriptt denotes a t^(th) track, t∈[0, T−1], and T is the number of tracks andis an integer greater than or equal to 2.

Various existing methods may be adopted for calculating Ind_(t) of eachtrack. For example, for the single-track encoding index calculationmethod provided in Chinese Patent Application Publication CN 101295506published Oct. 29, 2008, reference may be made to row 18, page 13 to row9, page 15 (Embodiment 2, FIG. 14 and FIG. 15) in the specification ofthe application document, and for a corresponding decoding calculationmethod, reference may be made to row 23, page 16 to row 12, page 17(Embodiment 4) in the specification of the application document. Alsofor example, for the single-track encoding index calculation methodprovided in Chinese Patent Application Publication CN101388210 publishedMar. 18, 2009, reference may be made to row 23, page 8 to row 7, page 10(Embodiment 2, FIG. 7) in the specification of the application document,and for a corresponding decoding calculation method, reference may bemade to row 10, page 21 to row 27, page 21 (Embodiment 6) in thespecification of the application document.

In order to better save encoding bits, during selection of an Ind_(t)calculation method, a calculation method capable of reaching thetheoretical lower limit value of the number of single-track encodingbits may be selected as much as possible. Moreover, a calculation methodenabling the value range of Ind_(t) to be continuous or be continuous asmuch as possible is further preferably used, so as to utilize the idlespace. It should be noted that, as long as both the encoding end and thedecoding end may determine a calculation method adopted by a track,different tracks may adopt different Ind_(t) calculation methods.

A2: Split at least one Ind_(t) at least once into at least two sections,where splitting at least once is equivalent to splitting Ind_(t) intotwo split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to a set factor(SLF_(t)).

The splitting of Ind_(t) may be understood as follows: that indexinformation is borne by a parameter is converted into that indexinformation is borne by more than two parameters. For example, thatoriginally a parameter with the value range being [0, 99] indicates onehundred cases may be split into that two parameters with the value rangebeing [0, 9] commonly indicate the one hundred cases.

Ind_(t) may be split into multiple split indexes, such as Ind_(t0),Ind_(t1), Ind_(t2), Ind_(t3), . . . , and the like. In actualcalculation, a split index needed by the present invention may beobtained by directly splitting Ind_(t), or may be obtained by splittingagain a section split by Ind_(t); no matter which case it is, thesplitting for obtaining the split index (that is, a split index used forsubsequent combination) needed by the present invention may beequivalently understood as a process of splitting Ind_(t) into two splitindexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1), one of which is a split index used forsubsequent combination, and the other of which may be understood as asection including the rest information of Ind_(t).

Therefore, the factor SLF_(t) may be understood as follows: the valuerange of the original Ind_(t) is divided into several intervals, thelength of each interval is not greater than SLF_(t), SLF_(t) is apositive integer, Ind_(t0) denotes a serial number of an interval towhich Ind_(t) belongs, and Ind_(t) denotes a serial number of Ind_(t) inthe interval to which Ind_(t) belongs (Ind_(t1)≤SLF_(t)), andInd_(t)≤Ind_(t0)×SLF_(t)+Ind_(t1);

When the less-than sign is taken in the above formula, it means that, aspace jointly provided by Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) may be greater than aspace originally occupied by Ind_(t); because generally the idleencoding space of Ind_(t) has some remainders, if the joint space ofInd_(t0) and Ind_(t1) is slightly larger, generally final encoding bitsaving may not be influenced unfavorably.

The most economical case is that splitting is able to be performed asmuch as possible according to the space size of Ind_(t), that isInd_(t0)=Int(Ind_(t)/SLF_(t)), where Int( ) denotes rounding down to aninteger, and Ind_(t1)=Ind_(t)%SLF_(t), where % denotes taking aremainder.

In this case, if the value range of Ind_(t) is continuous, compared withthe value range of Ind_(t), what is idle of the space jointly providedby Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) is just a difference between a maximal value ofInd_(t1) and SLF_(t) when Ind_(t0) takes a maximal value.

Different tracks may adopt different SLF_(t), and if multiple splitindexes are split on a same track, each splitting may also use differentSLF_(t), as long as SLF_(t) used by a certain split index split by acertain track is determined.

A3: Combine a split index of at least one track and split indexes orencoding indexes of other tracks to generate a combined index(Ind_(SLF)).

Corresponding to “splitting”, the “combination” may be understood asfollows: that index information is borne by more than two parameters isconverted into that index information is borne by one parameter. Thevalue range of a parameter after combination is greater than or at leastequal to a product of value ranges of each parameter before combination.The combination of multiple parameters may be denoted with a formula asfollows: AI=((((a₁×A_(I-1)+a_(I-1)) . . . )×A₂+a₂)×A₁+a₁)×A₀+a₀, whereAI denotes a parameter after combination, a_(i) denotes I+1 parametersbefore combination, i∈[0, I], and A_(i) denotes the number of all valuesof a_(i). This combination manner is the most compact, the value rangeof a parameter after combination is equal to a product of value rangesof each parameter before combination, and all parameter combinationmentioned here may adopt this manner. Other combination manners may befurther adopted. For example, the value range of a parameter aftercombination may be greater than a product of value ranges of eachparameter before combination as long as a parameter after combinationcan completely retain information of each parameter before combination;if the value space of a parameter after combination does not exceed muchcompared with a product of value spaces of each parameter beforecombination, generally final encoding bit saving may not be influencedunfavorably.

In the present invention, a generated combined index at least includes asplit index of a track, and furthermore, split indexes or encodingindexes of other tracks may participate in combination. It should benoted that, the present invention does not limit the number of combinedindexes, and if a track provides multiple split indexes forparticipating in combination, the split indexes may be respectivelycombined into different combined indexes.

A4: Perform encoding according to a combined index and other uncombinedsplit indexes.

(1) The combined index and each uncombined split index may be directlyencoded respectively. Because each combination section in the combinedindex carries a part of an idle space from a track, it is possible tosave encoding bits fixedly.

(2) Furthermore, a variable-length encoding manner may be furtheradopted for a combined index, so as to save more encoding bits of thecombined index, that is comparing the combined index Ind_(SLF) andadjusting a threshold value (THR), where, THR≤2̂(K_(SLF))−Ind_(SLF,max),2̂(K_(SLF)) denotes a K_(SLF) power of 2, the K_(SLF) is the length ofthe bit sequence of the Ind_(SLF,max), and the Ind_(SLF,max) denotes amaximal value of the Ind_(SLF); if the Ind_(SLF) is less than the THR,encoding the Ind_(SLF) using a first number of encoding bits; otherwise,encoding the Ind_(SLF) added with an offset value THR₀ using a secondnumber of encoding bits, in which THR≤THR₀≤2̂(K_(SLF))−Ind_(SLF,max), thefirst number is less than the second number, the second number is lessthan or equal to the K_(SLF), and the first number and the second numberare both positive integers.

For the principle, specific deduction and description of the foregoingmethod for saving bits, reference is made to Chinese Patent ApplicationCN200910150637.8 filed Jun. 19, 2009.

(3) The combined index may be split, then combined with other uncombinedsplit indexes and then encoded.

That is, the combined index is split into T1 recombined indexesInd_(t0′) according to a set value range, in which T1 is less than orequal to the number of tracks generating the combined index (the numberof values of t here may be less than the number T of values of toriginally denoting a t^(th) track, but because a recombined index isused for recombination with an uncombined split index of a correspondingtrack t, the subscript t is still used continuously to denote beingcorresponding to a track), a value range of at least one Ind_(t0′) isgreater than a value range of the split index, participating incombination, of the corresponding track t, and a value range of at leastone Ind_(t0′) is less than a value range of the split index,participating in combination, of the corresponding track t. Here, thesplitting of a combined index may be performed with reference to thesplitting of an encoding index in step A2, but it is needed to split T1recombined indexes, each splitting may be based on the same or differentvalue ranges, and the foregoing limitation to the value range of thesplit recombined index enables the idle space converged by the combinedindex to be concentrated on certain recombined indexes to a certainextent during splitting, thereby facilitating saving of encoding bits.

Each recombined index and an uncombined split index of a correspondingtrack are respectively combined and then encoded, and if a track withoutbeing allocated a recombined index exists, an uncombined split index ofthe track is encoded. For the combination of a recombined index and asplit index of a corresponding track, reference may be made to theaforementioned combined index combination process. Because the combinedindex aggregates the idle space, in a case that the encoding bits of anoriginal track for an allocated recombined index are not increased, thesplitting of the combined index is completed before certain tracks maybe allocated a recombined index, and in this case, only the uncombinedsplit index of the track may be encoded.

If there is another track which does not provides a split index andwhose encoding index does not participate in combination, the track maybe regarded as an independent encoding track, and is not discussed inthe present invention.

Embodiment 2

A track joint pulse encoding method. This embodiment provides apreferable solution for selecting split indexes to be combined on thebasis of Embodiment 1, as shown in FIG. 3, which includes the followingsteps.

B1: Calculate an encoding index (Ind_(t)) of each track.

B2: Split at least one Ind_(t) at least once into at least two sections,where splitting at least once is equivalent to splitting Ind_(t) intotwo split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to a set factorSLF_(t).

Step B1 and step B2 may be executed with reference to step A1 and stepA2 of Embodiment 1.

B3: Combine a split index of at least one track and split indexes orencoding indexes of other tracks to generate a combined index(Ind_(SLF)), and, when a split index participating in combination isselected, select, for a track t, a split index capable of embodyingspace occupancy characteristics of the Ind_(t) to participate incombination.

Being capable of embodying space occupancy characteristics of theInd_(t) refers to that, compared with other split indexes, an occupancyrate of a value range of a selected split index for an encoding space isthe closest to an occupancy rate of a value range of the Ind_(t) for theencoding space.

In the present invention, because idle spaces of different tracks arecombined to assist in saving encoding bits, in order to achieve bettereffect of utilizing the idle space, it is expected that the value rangeof the split index representing the track t to perform combination canmaintain the idle proportion of the encoding space of the value range ofInd_(t) as much as possible, which means that the value range of therest section of Ind_(t) is closer to full utilization of the encodingspace, such as, close to an integer power of 2.

B4: Perform encoding according to the combined index and otheruncombined split indexes.

Step B4 may be executed with reference to step A4 of Embodiment 1.

Adoption of the solution of this embodiment can further ensure theeffect that a combined index saves encoding bits.

Embodiment 3

A track joint pulse encoding method. This embodiment provides apreferable solution for splitting an encoding index on the basis ofEmbodiment 1, as shown in FIG. 4, which includes the following steps.

C1: Calculate an encoding index Ind_(t) of each track.

Step C1 may be executed with reference to step A1 of Embodiment 1.

C2: Split at least one Ind_(t) at least once into at least two sections,where splitting at least once is equivalent to splitting Ind_(t) intotwo split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to a set factorSLF_(t), Ind_(t0)=Int(Ind_(t)/SLF_(t)), and Ind_(t1)=Ind_(t)%SLF_(t),where, SLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)), or SLF_(t)=Int(Ind_(t,max)/2̂(K_(t))), K_(t) isa positive integer, and Ind_(t,max) denotes a maximal value of Ind_(t).

(1) When SLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)), Ind_(t0)=Int(Ind_(t)/2̂(K_(t))), andInd_(t1)=Ind_(t)%2̂(K_(t)).

In this case, the value range of Ind_(t1) can fully utilize an encodingspace, what is idle is just a difference between a maximal value ofInd_(t1) and 2̂(K_(t)) when Ind_(t0) takes a maximal value, and the valuerange of Ind_(t0) fully retains the space occupancy characteristics ofInd_(t). The smaller the K_(t) is, the closer the space characteristicsof Ind_(t0) are to Ind_(t), and when K_(t) is 0, Ind_(t0) is degeneratedinto Ind_(t).

(2) When SLF_(t)=Int(Ind_(t,max)/2̂(K_(t))), this case is just oppositeto (1), and actually, it is equivalent to that Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) in(1) exchange positions, the value range of Ind_(t0) can fully utilizethe encoding space, and the value range of Ind_(t1) fully retains thespace occupancy characteristics of Ind_(t). The smaller the K_(t) is,the closer the space characteristics of Ind_(t1) are to Ind_(t), andwhen K_(t) is 0, Ind_(t1) is degenerated into Ind_(t).

C3: Combine a split index of at least one track and split indexes orencoding indexes of other tracks to generate a combined index Ind_(SLF).

It may be known according to the analysis in Embodiment 2 that, if acombined index needs to achieve better effect of saving encoding bits,it is needed to select a split index that retains the spacecharacteristics of Ind_(t) as much as possible, and therefore, for thetrack t providing a split index to participate in combination, ifSLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)), it is appropriate to select Ind_(t0) to participate incombination, and if SLF_(t)=Int(Ind_(t,max)/2̂(K_(t))), it is appropriateto select Ind_(t1) to participate in combination.

Moreover, it may be known according to the analysis of step C2 that, thesmaller the K_(t) is, the better the space characteristics retained bythe split index selected to participate in combination are. However, thelength of a corresponding combined index is increased, and therefore,the length of the split index participating in combination may bedetermined according to the condition of an actual track (such as, thelength of the original encoding index, and the idle extent of thespace). During actual design, proportions of idle spaces, which can beretained by split indexes used for combination and corresponds todifferent values of K_(t), may be calculated one by one, and a K_(t)value, which can maintain an idle space of a high proportion and doesnot cause a split index participating in combination to be excessivelylong, is selected. For example, it may be selected thatK_(t)=K_(t,max)−2, or K_(t)=K_(t,max)−3, or K_(t)=K_(t,max)−4, where theK_(t,max) is the length of a bit sequence of the Ind_(t,max).

C4: Perform encoding according to the combined index and otheruncombined split indexes.

Step C4 may be executed with reference to step A4 of Embodiment 1.

The Ind_(t) splitting manner provided in this embodiment can ensure thatone of split indexes retains the space occupancy characteristics ofInd_(t) as much as possible, so that the combined index may better saveencoding bits.

Embodiment 4

A track joint pulse encoding method. This embodiment provides a simple,convenient and easy solution for splitting an encoding index on thebasis of Embodiment 1, as shown in FIG. 5, which includes the followingsteps.

D1: Calculate an encoding index Ind_(t) of each track.

Step D1 may be executed with reference to step A1 of Embodiment 1.

D2: Split at least one Ind_(t) at least once into at least two sections,where splitting at least once is equivalent to splitting Ind_(t) intotwo split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to a set factorSLF_(t), and the specific practice is, selecting a value of a bitlocated at a set position of Ind_(t) as Ind_(t0), and a value of bits atremaining positions as Ind_(t1).

In this embodiment, a split index is directly obtained from Ind_(t)according to a bit splitting manner. In this case, SLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)),where the number of bits at the set position is K_(t0), the number ofbits at the remaining position is K_(t), K_(t0)+K_(t)=K_(t,max),K_(t,max) is the length of the bit sequence of Ind_(t,max), andInd_(t,max) denotes a maximal value of Ind_(t).

It is easily understood that, when the set bits forming a certain splitindex are not continuous, it means that the value range of Ind_(t) isdiscontinuously allocated into several intervals with a length beingSLF_(t), but occupancy characteristics of the split index for theencoding space is not influenced by whether an included value range iscontinuous, and is only relevant to whether the intervals are fullypadded.

It should be noted that, when a parameter is split in a bitwise manner,a position of a bit is described according to the bit sequence length ofthe maximal value of the parameter. For example, if the bit sequencelength of Ind_(t,max) is 10, a value of Ind_(t) may be merely 2 at acertain time (unless otherwise specially illustrated, the values usedhere are all decimal), and the effective bit sequence length of Ind_(t)are only 2 bits, but when the parameter is split in a bitwise manner, aposition needed to split a bit is still calculated starting from thehighest 10 bits.

Moreover, it may be seen in contrast with the situation (1) described instep C2 of Embodiment 3 that, the situation (1) is actually equivalentto that in the bit sequence with a length being K_(t,max), a value ofK_(t0) bits starting from the highest bit of Ind_(t) is selected asInd_(t0), and a value of remaining bits is selected as Ind_(t1), thatis, Ind_(t) is divided into two segments according to a bit priority,and a value of each segment is corresponding to a split index.

D3: Combine a split index of at least one track and split indexes orencoding indexes of other tracks to generate a combined index Ind_(SLF),and the specific practice is, selecting a split index of Ind_(t) atleast including values of the highest two bits to participate incombination.

It may be known according to the analysis in Embodiment 2 that, if acombined index is needed to achieve better effect of saving encodingbits, it is needed to select a split index that retains the spacecharacteristics of Ind_(t) as much as possible, and when Ind_(t) issplit in a bitwise manner, several highest bits are the most capable ofreflecting the space characteristics of Ind_(t), and therefore, nomatter whether bits forming a split index are continuous, a split indexincluding values of the highest two bits is preferably selected toparticipate in combination. A more preferable situation is, when Ind_(t)is split according to the bit priority of the bit sequence, a splitindex corresponding to a split segment located at a high bit is selectedto participate in combination, such as Ind_(t0) in the situation (1)described in step C2 of Embodiment 3.

D4: Perform encoding according to the combined index and otheruncombined split indexes.

Step D4 may be executed with reference to step A4 of Embodiment 1.Moreover, if a manner is adopted in which the combined index is split,then combined with other uncombined split indexes and then encoded, thesplitting of the combined index may also be performed with reference tothe foregoing step D2, that is, splitting the total length K_(SLF) ofthe bit sequence of the combined index into T1 sections according to aset length, in which T1 is less than or equal to the number of tracksgenerating the combined index, a value of each section is correspondingto one Ind_(t0′), the K_(SLF) is the length of the bit sequence of theInd_(SLF,max), and the Ind_(SLF,max) denotes a maximal value of theInd_(SLF). For example, splitting the K_(SLF) according to a K_(t0)value used by the track t generating the combined index, in which thenumber of bits split by each Ind_(t0′) correspondingly is less than orequal to the K_(t0) value used by a corresponding track t.

For example, if four tracks exist, and each track respectively extractsthe highest four bits of an encoding index as a split index forparticipating in combination, after the combination, the combined indexmay be split likewise with 4 bits as a segment, and is used as arecombined index to replace the highest four bits of an originalencoding index. The combined index combines an idle space, and the bitsequence length may be less than 4+4+4+4, so the recombined indexobtained by a certain track may only have 3 bits or even less, whichbecome encoding bits which are fixedly saved. It should be noted that,when split indexes are combined into a combined index, the operation ofsaving bits is completed, so when the combined index is split in abitwise manner, no special rule is needed, and as long as an encodingend and an decoding end adopt a same rule, bits may be continuouslysegmented or may not be continuously extracted.

This embodiment provides a simple, convenient and easy Ind_(t) splittingmanner, which can not only ensure that one of split indexes retains thespace occupancy characteristics of Ind_(t) as much as possible, but alsois implemented conveniently.

Embodiment 5

A track joint pulse encoding method. This embodiment provides a layeredcascade track joint pulse encoding method on the basis of Embodiment 1,as shown in FIG. 6, which includes the following steps.

E1: Group tracks participating in joint encoding, in which each group atleast includes two tracks.

For example, sixteen tracks participate in joint encoding, every fourtracks form one group, and totally four groups are formed.

E2: Split and combine an encoding index in each group with reference tothe manner of Embodiment 1.

That is, an encoding index of each track is calculated; at least twoencoding indexes are split; each encoding index is split at least onceinto at least two sections, where splitting at least once is equivalentto splitting an encoding index into two one-stage split indexesaccording to a set one-stage factor, one one-stage split index denotesserial numbers of several intervals with a length not greater than a setvalue, the other one-stage split index denotes a serial number of theencoding index in the interval to which the encoding index belongs; andone-stage split indexes from at least two tracks are combined togenerate a one-stage combined index.

E3: Starting from m=2, repeat the following operation of generating anm-stage combined index until m=M; split at least two (m−1)-stagecombined indexes, in which m∈[2, M], M is an integer greater than orequal to 2; split each (m−1)-stage combined index at least once into atleast two sections, where the splitting at least once is equivalent tosplitting an (m−1)-stage combined index into two m-stage split indexesaccording to a set m-stage factor; and combine m-stage split indexesfrom at least two (m−1)-stage combined indexes to generate an m-stagecombined index.

By regarding the (m−1)-stage combined index needed to be split as theencoding index in each aforementioned embodiment, the foregoingsplitting and combination procedure for each stage may be performed withreference to corresponding description, and is not repeated again. Forexample, with reference to Embodiment 4, the one-stage split index usedfor generating the one-stage combined index may be a value interceptedfrom a set bit of a corresponding encoding index starting from thehighest bit; and the m-stage split index used for generating the m-stagecombined index may be a value intercepted from a set bit of acorresponding (m−1)-stage combined index starting from the highest bit.

E4: Perform encoding according to the M-stage combined index and otheruncombined one-stage to (M−1)-stage split indexes.

Similar to step A4 in Embodiment 1, the M-stage combined index and otheruncombined one-stage to (M−1)-stage split indexes may be directlyencoded respectively. Or further, the M-stage combined index may besplit, then combined with other uncombined (M−1)-stage split indexes andthen encoded, which is not repeated again here.

It should be noted that, although in the foregoing encoding procedure,in order to make description clear and be provided with cyclicaloperability, splitting and combination of each stage are consistentlydescribed, actually, it may also be the same as Embodiment 1, a splitindex is permitted to participate in combination, and also an encodingindex (for first-stage combination) or combined index (for combinationabove second-stage) is permitted to directly participate in combination,or even a split index may be permitted to participate in combination(such as, an uncombined one-stage split index participates in generationof a three-stage combined index) by skipping a stage, but in thesecases, it is needed to set a splitting and combination rule for eachstage, so that the encoding end and the decoding end maintainconsistent.

This embodiment is applicable to joint encoding for excessive tracks,such as 16 or 32 or even more tracks, in a multi-track case, even ifeach track only extracts several bits of split indexes to be combined,the combined index is also made excessively long, and in this case, theforegoing layered cascade manner is adopted, through multi-layeredsplitting and combination, it can be ensured that idle spaces are fullycombined, and the combined index is not made excessively long.

Embodiment 6

A track joint pulse decoding method. The decoding method provided inthis embodiment decodes the joint code obtained according to theencoding method of Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 4, and a decodingprocedure is an inverse procedure for an encoding procedure, as shown inFIG. 7, which includes the following steps.

F1: Acquire a joint code, and acquiring, from the joint code, a combinedindex and an uncombined split index corresponding to a track.

The process of extracting each index from the joint code may beperformed according to the inverse process of executing an operation oneach index during encoding.

For example, if an encoding end directly encodes a combined index andeach uncombined split index respectively, each index is directlydecoded.

Also for example, if the encoding end adopts a variable-length encodingmanner for the combined index, the encoding length of the combined indexis determined and then is correspondingly decoded (with reference toChinese Patent Application CN200910150637.8).

Further for example, if the encoding end splits the combined index,which is then combined with other uncombined split indexes and thenencoded, a code corresponding to each track is extracted from the jointcode, and a recombined index and an uncombined split index are splitfrom a code of each track; if a code including no recombined indexexists, an uncombined split index corresponding to a corresponding trackis directly obtained, and then all recombined indexes are spliced into acombined index according to the splitting manner of the encoding end.

F2: Split the combined index into split indexes corresponding to thetrack, or split the combined index into a split index and an encodingindex that correspond to the track.

This step is performed inversely with reference to the manner in whichthe encoding end generates the combined index.

For example, if the encoding end generates a combined index in anAI=((((a_(i)×A_(I-1)+a_(I-1)) . . . )×A₂+a₂)×A₁+a₁)×A₀+a₀ manner, duringdecoding, a value of a₀ may be obtained by calculating AI%A₀, then avalue of a₁ may be obtained by calculating Int(AI/A₀)%A₁, and the restmay be deduced by analogy, until all a_(i) is obtained.

F3: For each track participating in splitting the encoding index,splice, according to a split manner of an encoding end, a split indexnot participating in combination and a split index participating incombination of the track to generate the encoding index of the track.

For those tracks that are not split but directly use an encoding indexto participate in combination, step F2 may obtain the encoding index ofthose tracks, and this step may be omitted.

F4: Reestablish a pulse sequence on the track according to the encodingindex of the track for each track.

The encoding end uses the manner in which the split indexes arecombined, so likewise, a decoding end may obtain the benefit of reducingthe bit width requirement for value processing.

Embodiment 7

A track joint pulse decoding method. The decoding method provided inthis embodiment decodes the joint code obtained according to the layeredcascade encoding method of Embodiment 5, and a decoding procedure is aninverse procedure of an encoding procedure, as shown in FIG. 8, whichincludes the following steps.

G1: Acquire a joint code, and acquiring, from the joint code, an M-stagecombined index, an uncombined m-stage split index corresponding to each(m−1)-stage combined index, and an uncombined one-stage split indexcorresponding to each track, in which M is an integer greater than orequal to 2, and m∈[2, M].

With reference to step F1 of Embodiment 6, the index extracting processis performed according to the inverse process of executing an operationon each index during encoding likewise, and is not repeated again.

G2: Starting from m=M, repeat the following operation of generating an(m−1)-stage combined index until m=2; split each m-stage combined indexinto an m-stage split index corresponding to each (m−1)-stage combinedindex for generating the m-stage combined index; and for each(m−1)-stage combined index, splice, according to a split manner of anencoding end, an m-stage split index not participating in combinationand an m-stage split index participating in combination of the(m−1)-stage combined index to generate the (m−1)-stage combined index.

G3: Split each one-stage combined index into a one-stage split indexcorresponding to each track in a track group for generating theone-stage combined index; and for each track in each track group,splice, according to the split manner of the encoding end, a one-stagesplit index not participating in combination and a one-stage split indexparticipating in combination of the track to generate an encoding index.

G4: Reestablish a pulse sequence on the track according to the encodingindex for each track in each track group.

Embodiment 8

A vector joint pulse encoder 10. The encoder provided in this embodimentmay be used for executing the encoding method provided in Embodiment 1to Embodiment 4, as shown in FIG. 9, which includes an encoding indexcalculation unit 101 configured to calculate an encoding index Ind_(t)of each vector, where a subscript t denotes a t^(th) vector, t∈[0, T−1],and T is an integer greater than or equal to 2; a vector index splittingunit 102 configured to split at least one Ind_(t) at least once into atleast two sections, where splitting at least once is equivalent tosplitting the Ind_(t) into two split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1)according to a set factor SLF_(t), the SLF_(t) is a positive integer,the Ind_(t0) denotes a serial number of an interval to which the Ind_(t)belongs, the Ind_(t1) denotes a serial number of the Ind_(t) in theinterval to which the Ind_(t) belongs, a length of the interval is notgreater than the SLF_(t), and Ind_(t)≤Ind_(t0)×SLF_(t)+Ind_(t1); anindex combination unit 103 configured to combine a split index of atleast one vector and split indexes or encoding indexes of other vectorsto generate a combined index Ind_(SLF); and an encoding unit 104configured to perform encoding according to the combined index generatedby the index combination unit 103 and other uncombined split indexessplit by the vector index splitting unit 102.

Further, the encoding unit 104 may include a recombining sub-unit 1041configured to split the combined index into T1 recombined indexesInd_(t0′) according to a set value range, in which T1 is less than orequal to the number of vectors generating the combined index, a valuerange of at least one Ind_(t0′) is greater than a value range of thesplit index, participating in combination, of the corresponding vectort, and a value range of at least one Ind_(t0′) is less than the valuerange of the split index, participating in combination, of thecorresponding vector t; and an encoding sub-unit 1042 configured tocombine each recombined index and an uncombined split index of acorresponding vector respectively and then encode, and if a vectorwithout being allocated a recombined index exists, encode an uncombinedsplit index of the vector.

Embodiment 9

A vector joint pulse encoder 20. The encoder provided in this embodimentmay be used for executing the encoding method provided in Embodiment 5,as shown in FIG. 10, which includes a vector index calculation unit 201configured to group vectors participating in joint encoding, in whicheach group at least includes two vectors; in each group, calculate anencoding index of each vector; split at least two encoding indexes;split each encoding index at least once into at least two sections,where the splitting at least once is equivalent to splitting an encodingindex into two one-stage split indexes according to a set one-stagefactor, one one-stage split index denotes serial numbers of severalintervals with a length not greater than a set value, the otherone-stage split index denotes a serial number of the encoding index inan interval to which the encoding index belongs; and combine one-stagesplit indexes from at least two vectors to generate a one-stage combinedindex; a cascade calculation unit 202 configured to, starting from m=2,repeat the following operation of generating an m-stage combined indexuntil m=M; split at least two (m−1)-stage combined indexes, in whichm∈[2, M], M is an integer greater than or equal to 2; split each(m−1)-stage combined index at least once into at least two sections,where splitting at least once is equivalent to splitting an (m−1)-stagecombined index into two m-stage split indexes according to a set m-stagefactor; and combine m-stage split indexes from at least two (m−1)-stagecombined indexes to generate an m-stage combined index; and an encodingunit 203 configured to perform encoding according to the M-stagecombined index and other uncombined one-stage to (M−1)-stage splitindexes.

During practical implementation, the cascade calculation unit 202 maymultiplex a section in the vector index calculation unit 201, in whichthe section is used for splitting and combining an encoding index.

Embodiment 10

A vector joint pulse decoder 30. The decoder provided in this embodimentmay be used for executing the decoding method of Embodiment 6, as shownin FIG. 11, which includes a decoding unit 301 configured to acquire ajoint code, and acquire, from the joint code, a combined index and anuncombined split index corresponding to a vector; an index splittingunit 302 configured to split the combined index acquired by the decodingunit 301 into split indexes corresponding to the vector, or split thecombined index into a split index and an encoding index that correspondto the vector; a vector index reestablishing unit 303 configured to, foreach vector participating in splitting the encoding index, splice,according to a split manner of an encoding end, a split index notparticipating in combination and a split index participating incombination of the vector to generate the encoding index of the vector;and a vector reestablishing unit 304 configured to reestablish thevector according to the encoding index of the vector for each vector.

Further, the decoding unit 301 may include a decoding sub-unit 3011configured to extract, from the joint code, a code corresponding to eachvector; split a recombined index and an uncombined split index from thecode of each vector; and if a code including no recombined index exists,directly obtain an uncombined split index corresponding to acorresponding vector; and a splicing sub-unit 3012 configured to spliceall recombined indexes into a combined index according to the splitmanner of the encoding end.

Embodiment 11

A vector joint pulse decoder 40. The decoder provided in this embodimentmay be used for executing the decoding method of Embodiment 7, as shownin FIG. 12, which includes a decoding unit 401 configured to acquire ajoint code, and acquire, from the joint code, an M-stage combined index,an uncombined m-stage split index corresponding to each (m−1)-stagecombined index, and an uncombined one-stage split index corresponding toeach vector, in which M is an integer greater than or equal to 2, andm∈[2, M]; a cascade recovering unit 402 configured to, starting fromm=M, repeat the following operation of generating an (m−1)-stagecombined index until m=2; split each m-stage combined index into anm-stage split index corresponding to each (m−1)-stage combined index forgenerating the m-stage combined index; and for each (m−1)-stage combinedindex, splice, according to a split manner of an encoding end, anm-stage split index not participating in combination and an m-stagesplit index participating in combination of the (m−1)-stage combinedindex to generate the (m−1)-stage combined index; a vector indexreestablishing unit 403 configured to split each one-stage combinedindex into a one-stage split index corresponding to each vector in avector group for generating the one-stage combined index; and for eachvector in each vector group, splice, according to the split manner ofthe encoding end, a one-stage split index not participating incombination and a one-stage split index participating in combination ofthe vector to generate an encoding index; and a vector reestablishingunit 404 configured to reestablish the vector according to the encodingindex for each vector in each vector group.

During practical implementation, the cascade recovering unit 402 maymultiplex a section in the vector index reestablishing unit 403, inwhich the section is used for splitting and splicing a one-stagecombined index.

In order to better understand the present invention, two specificexamples based on the track joint encoding of the present invention areprovided below.

Example 1

it is assumed that four tracks participate in joint encoding, and fivepulses with symbols are encoded on each track (the number of pulsesencoded on each track may also vary). Each track splits a split indexparticipating in combination in a manner of intercepting the highestfour bits of an encoding index (the number of bits intercepted by eachtrack may also vary). As shown in FIG. 13, the encoding procedure is asfollows.

(1) Encoding indexes Ind₀, Ind₁, Ind₂, and Ind₃ of four tracks arecalculated respectively, and if the total number of track positions is16, the value range of a 5-pulse encoding index is 0 to 285088, and thenumber of bits needed is 19.

(2) The highest four bits of each encoding index are intercepted to beused as the split index Ind_(t0) participating in combination, and theremaining 15 bits are used as the split index Ind_(t) not participatingin combination. That is, it is equivalent to that SLF_(t)=2̂15.

(3) Ind₀₀, Ind₁₀, Ind₂₀, and Ind₃₀ are combined to generate the combinedindex Ind_(SLF), and because the number of values of the 5-pulseencoding index is 285088, which is divided by SLF_(t)=2̂15=32768 toobtain a quotient being 8.7001953125, the value range of Ind_(t0) is 0to 8, that is, the number of values of Ind_(t0) is 9 (the number ofvalues of Ind_(t0) with another number of pulses may be deduced byanalogy, which is not repeated again), and therefore,

Ind_(SLF)=((Ind₃₀×9+Ind₂₀)×9+Ind₁₀)×9+Ind₀₀

It may be known that the value range of Ind_(SLF) is 0 to 6560, and abit sequence length is 13.

(4) In this case, Ind_(SLF), Ind₀₁, Ind₁₁, Ind₂₁, and Ind₃₁ may bedirectly encoded, a total encoding length is 13+15+15+15+15, and threebits are saved compared with single-track encoding.

Also, Ind_(SLF) may be split, then combined with Ind_(t1) and thenencoded, that is, Ind_(SLF) is split with 4 bits as a group (thesplitting of the combined index according to the length of the splitindex participating in combination may intuitively embody the effect ofsaving bits, and definitely the splitting may also be performedaccording to other lengths; bits of each recombined index may vary, andbits forming a same recombined index may be unnecessarily continuous,which does not influence the effect of saving bits), Ind_(30′),Ind_(20′), Ind_(10′), and Ind_(00′) are obtained, and the length of thelast recombined index Ind_(30′) is only 1 bit; and then each recombinedindex is combined with an uncombined split index of a correspondingtrack, that is, the highest four bits of the encoding index of thecorresponding track are replaced with each recombined index to obtainnew encoding indexes Ind_(3′), Ind_(2′), Ind_(1′), and Ind_(0′), and thelength of the new encoding index Ind_(0′) is only 16 bits, and thereforethree bits are fixedly saved.

Example 2

It is assumed that four tracks are divided into two groups (two tracksform a group, and the number of tracks included in each group may alsovary) to participate in two-stage cascade joint encoding, and fivepulses with symbols are encoded on each track (the number of pulsesencoded on each track may also vary). Each track splits a split indexparticipating in combination in a manner of intercepting the highesteight bits of an encoding index (the number of bits intercepted by eachtrack may also vary). As shown in FIG. 14, the encoding procedure is asfollows.

(1) Encoding indexes Ind₀, Ind₁, Ind₂, and Ind₃ of respective two tracksin two groups are calculated respectively, where, Ind₀, and Ind₁ areencoding indexes of two tracks of the first group, and Ind₂, and Ind₃are encoding indexes of two tracks of the second group; if the totalnumber of track positions is 16, the value range of the 5-pulse encodingindex is 0 to 285088, and the number of bits required is 19.

(2) The highest 8 bits of an encoding index in the first group and thesecond group are intercepted to be used as a one-stage split indexInd_(1,t0) participating in combination (the first subscript 1 denotesthe number of stages, and it is the same below), and remaining 11 bitsare used as a one-stage split index Ind_(1,t1) not participating incombination. That is, it is equivalent to that the one-stage factorSLF_(1,t=)2̂11.

(3) Ind_(1,00) and Ind_(1,10) are combined to generate a one-stagecombined index Ind_(1,SLF,0), and Ind_(1,20) and Ind_(1,30) are combinedto generate a one-stage combined index Ind_(1,SLF,1); the number ofvalues of the 5-pulse encoding index is 285088, which is divided bySLF_(t)=21 1=2048 to obtain a quotient being 139.203125, so the valuerange of Ind_(1,t0) is 0 to 139, that is, the number of values ofInd_(1,t0) is 140, and therefore,Ind_(1,SLF,0)=Ind_(1,10×)140+Ind_(1,00),Ind_(1,SLF,1)=Ind_(1,30)×140+Ind_(1,20).

It may be known that the number of values of the one-stage combinedindexes Ind_(1,SLF,0) and Ind_(1,SLF,1) is 19600, and a bit sequencelength is 15, and therefore, each one-stage combined index saves onebit, and the one-stage joint encoding saves two bits.

(4) The two-stage joint encoding operation continues to be performedbased on Ind_(1,SLF,0) and Ind_(1,SLF,1) (when multi-stage joint isperformed, a previous stage combined index may be regarded as anencoding index in one-stage joint to be similarly split and combined,and therefore a subscript t is subsequently used continuously to denotea t^(th) previous stage combined index); the highest 8 bits ofInd_(1,SLF,t) are intercepted to be used as a two-stage split indexInd_(2,SLF,t0) participating in combination, and the remaining 7 bitsare used as a two-stage split index Ind_(2,SLF,t1) not participating incombination. That is, it is equivalent to that the two-stage factorSLF₂,t=2̂7.

(5) Ind_(2,SLF,00) and Ind_(2,SLF,10) are combined to generate atwo-stage combined index Ind_(2,SLF); because the number of values ofInd_(1,SLF,t) is 19600, which is divided by SLF_(2,t)=2̂7=128 to obtain aquotient being 153.125, the value range of Ind_(2,SLF,t0) is 0 to 153,that is, the number of values of Ind_(2,SLF,t0) is 154, and therefore,Ind_(2,SLF)=Ind_(2,SLF,10)×154+Ind_(2,SLF,00)

It may be known that, the number of values of the two-stage combinedindex Ind_(2,SLF) is 23716, and the bit sequence length is 15, so thetwo-stage joint encoding saves one bit again.

(6) In this case, Ind_(2,SLF), Ind_(2,SLF,01), Ind_(2,SLF,11),Ind_(1,01), Ind_(1,11), Ind_(1,21), and Ind_(1,31) may be directlyencoded, a total encoding length is 15+7+7+11+11+11+11=73, and threebits are saved totally compared with single-track encoding.

Also, Ind_(2,SLF) may be split, then combined with Ind_(1,SLF,t1) andthen encoded, that is, Ind_(2,SLF) is split with 8 bits as a group (thesplitting of the m-stage combined index according to the length of them-stage split index participating in combination may intuitively embodythe effect of saving bits, and definitely the splitting may also beperformed according to other lengths; bits of each recombined index mayvary, and bits forming a same recombined index may be unnecessarilycontinuous, which does not influence the effect of saving bits),Ind_(2,SLF,10′) and Ind_(2,SLF,00′) are obtained, and the length of thelast recombined index Ind_(2,SLF,00′) is only 7 bits; and then eachrecombined index is combined with an uncombined two-stage split index ofa corresponding one-stage combined index, that is, the highest four bitsof the corresponding one-stage combined index are replaced with eachrecombined index to obtain new one-stage combined indexes Ind_(1,SLF,1′)and Ind_(1,SLF,0′), and the length of the new one-stage combined indexInd_(1,SLF,0′) is only 14 bits.

In this case, Ind_(1,SLF,1′), Ind_(1,SLF,0′), Ind₀₁, Ind₁₁, Ind₂₁, andInd₃₁ may be directly encoded, the total encoding length is15+14+11+11+11+11=73, and three bits are saved totally compared withsingle-track encoding.

Also, Ind_(1,SLF,1′) and Ind_(1,SLF,0′) may be split, then combined withInd_(1,t1) and then encoded, that is, Ind_(1,SLF,1′) is split with 8bits as a group to obtain Ind_(1,30′) and Ind_(1,20′), and the length ofthe recombined index Ind_(1,20′) is only 7 bits; Ind_(1,SLF,0′) is splitwith 8 bits as a group to obtain Ind_(1,10′) and Ind_(1,00′), and thelength of the recombined index Ind_(1,00′) is only 6 bits, and then,each recombined index is combined with an uncombined one-stage splitindex of a corresponding encoding index, that is, the highest four bitsof the encoding index of the corresponding encoding index are replacedwith each recombined index to obtain new encoding indexes Ind_(3′),Ind_(2′), Ind_(1′), and Ind_(0′), and the length of Ind_(2′) is only 18bits, the length of Ind_(0′) is only 17 bits, and therefore three bitsare fixedly saved.

Table 2 provides a case that during 4-track joint encoding, thehighest-four-bit joint encoding saves bits in a case of different numberof pulses (pulse with a symbol) on a track, and other cases that amulti-track joint or split index intercepts different bits may bededuced by analogy.

TABLE 2 Highest-four-bit joint Total Number Lower limit encoding rangeand number of pulses value for the number of bits of bits Number on 4single-track Value Number of of joint of bits tracks encoding bit rangeencoding bits encoding saved 3, 3, 3, 3 52 0~14640 14 50 2 3, 3, 3, 4 550~14640 14 53 2 3, 3, 4, 4 58 0~14640 14 56 2 3, 4, 4, 4 61 0~14640 1459 2 4, 4, 4, 4 64 0~14640 14 62 2 4, 4, 4, 5 67 0~11978 14 65 2 4, 4,5, 5 70 0~9800  14 68 2 4, 5, 5, 5 73 0~8019  13 70 3 5, 5, 5, 5 760~6560  13 73 3 5, 5, 5, 6 78 0~8747  14 76 2 5, 5, 6, 6 80 0~11663 1478 2 5, 6, 6, 6 82 0~15551 14 80 2 6, 6, 6, 6 84 0~20735 15 83 1 6, 6,6, 7 86 0~24191 15 85 1 6, 6, 7, 7 88 0~28223 15 87 1 6, 7, 7, 7 900~32927 16 90 0 7, 7, 7, 7 92 0~38415 16 92 0

It may be seen that, encoding bits can be effectively saved using thejoint encoding method of the present invention. The bits saved usingjoint encoding may be used for reducing a transmission code rate, andmay also be used for the ISF coefficient quantization, the pitch periodprecision, and the gain of other modules, so as to be used for improvingthe encoding quality.

For example, the number of pulses on a track may be increased (thenumber of ACELP excitation code pulses is increased) in a case of aninvariable code rate, so as to enhance the encoding quality. Forexample, several ACELP high-code-rate fixed codebooks for AMR-WB+, afterusing the highest-four-bit joint encoding shown in Table 2, may be addedwith several pulses at an original code rate, and details are asfollows:

(1) 3 pulses are added at 18.25 kbps

(highest-four-bit joint (AMR-WB+) encoding) Number of pulses on Numberof pulses on 4 4 tracks bits −> tracks bits 18.25 4, 4, 4, 4 64 4, 5, 5,5 70 kbps 4, 4, 4, 4 64 4, 4, 4, 4 62 4, 4, 4, 4 64 4, 4, 4, 4 62 4, 4,4, 4 64 4, 4, 4, 4 62

(3) 6 pulses are added at 19.85 kbps

(highest-four-bit joint (AMR-WB+) encoding) Number of pulses on Numberof pulses on 4 4 tracks bits −> tracks bits 19.85 4, 4, 5, 5 72 5, 5, 5,5 73 kbps 4, 4, 5, 5 72 5, 5, 5, 5 73 4, 4, 5, 5 72 5, 5, 5, 5 73 4, 4,5, 5 72 4, 4, 5, 5 68

(highest-four-bit joint (AMR-WB+) encoding) Number of pulses on Numberof pulses on 4 4 tracks bits −> tracks bits 19.85 4, 4, 5, 5 72 5, 5, 5,5 73 kbps 4, 4, 5, 5 72 5, 5, 5, 5 73 4, 4, 5, 5 72 4, 5, 5, 5 70 4, 4,5, 5 72 4, 5, 5, 5 70

(4) 7 pulses are added at 19.85 kbps

(highest-four-bit joint (AMR-WB+) encoding) Number of pulses on Numberof pulses on 4 4 tracks bits −> tracks bits 19.85 4, 4, 5, 5 72 5, 5, 6,6 78 kbps 4, 4, 5, 5 72 4, 5, 5, 5 70 4, 4, 5, 5 72 4, 5, 5, 5 70 4, 4,5, 5 72 4, 5, 5, 5 70

(5) 8 pulses are added at 23.05 kbps

(highest-four-bit joint (AMR-WB+) encoding) Number of pulses on Numberof pulses on 4 4 tracks bits −> tracks bits 23.05 6, 6, 6, 6 88 7, 7, 7,7 92 kbps 6, 6, 6, 6 88 7, 7, 7, 7 92 6, 6, 6, 6 88 6, 6, 6, 6 83 6, 6,6, 6 88 6, 6, 6, 6 83

Persons skilled in the art should understand that all or a part of thesteps of the methods according to the embodiments may be implemented bya program instructing relevant hardware. The program may be stored in acomputer readable storage medium, and the storage medium may include aread only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk,or an optical disk.

A vector joint encoding/decoding method and a vector jointencoder/decoder provided in the embodiments of the present invention areintroduced in detail above. Specific embodiments are used forillustrating principles and implementation manners of the presentinvention. The above descriptions of the embodiments are merely forunderstanding the method and core ideas of the present invention.Meanwhile, persons skilled in the art may make modifications to specificimplementation manners and application ranges according to the idea ofthe present invention. In conclusion, the content of the specificationshall not be regarded as a limitation to the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for vector joint encoding for a voice signal on a CELP (code excited linear prediction) model, comprising: calculating, by a processor of an encoder, an encoding index Ind_(t) of each vector from a plurality of vectors, wherein the each vector is determined based on the voice signal, wherein a subscript t denotes a t^(th) vector and t∈[0, T−1], and wherein T represents number of vectors and is an integer greater than or equal to 2; splitting the Ind_(t) at least once into two split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to a set factor SLF_(t), wherein the set factor SLF_(t) is a set split factor SLF for the t^(th) vector that varies according to the t^(th) vector, wherein the set factor SLF_(t) is a positive integer, wherein the Ind_(t0) denotes a serial number of an interval to which the Ind_(t) belongs, wherein the Ind_(t1) denotes a serial number of the Ind_(t) in the interval to which the Ind_(t) belongs, wherein a length of the interval is not greater than the SLF_(t), and wherein Ind_(t)≤Ind_(t0)×SLF_(t)+Ind_(t1); obtaining a combined index Ind_(SLF) based on a split index of at least one vector and a split index of other vector for a further splitting if any of the Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) is uncombined; and encoding the final output of the previous steps if all of the Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) is combined.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the vectors is represented as pulse distribution on a track, and wherein the encoding index is an index used for indicating the pulse distribution on the track.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the Ind_(t0) split from the Ind_(t) is equal to Ind_(t0)=Int(Ind_(t)/SLF_(t)), wherein Int( ) denotes rounding down to an integer, and the Ind_(t1) split from the Ind_(t) is equal to Ind_(t1)=Ind_(t)%SLF_(t), and wherein % denotes taking a remainder.
 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein SLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)), wherein K_(t) is a positive integer, and wherein the obtaining the combined index Ind_(SLF) comprises: selecting the Ind_(t0) to participate in a combination for a vector t providing a split index to participate in the combination; or setting SLF_(t)=Int(Ind_(t,max)/2̂(K_(t))), wherein Ind_(t,max) denotes a maximal value of the Ind_(t), and wherein obtaining a combined index Ind_(SLF) comprises selecting the Ind_(t) to participate in a combination for the vector t providing a split index to participate the combination.
 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein K_(t)=K_(t,max)−2, K_(t)=K_(t,max)−3, or K_(t)=K_(t,max)−4, and wherein the K_(t,max) is a length of a bit sequence of the Ind_(t,max).
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining the combined index Ind_(SLF) comprises selecting a split index for embodying space occupancy characteristics of the Ind_(t) to participate in a combination for a vector t providing a split index to participate in the combination, wherein the embodying space occupancy characteristics of the Ind_(t) refers to that, compared with other split indexes, an occupancy rate of a value range of a selected split index for an encoding space is closest to an occupancy rate of a value range of the Ind_(t) for the encoding space.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the splitting the Ind_(t) at least once into the two split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to the set factor SLF_(t) comprises: selecting a value of bits of the Ind_(t) as the Ind_(t0), the bits being located at a set position; and selecting a value of bits at a remaining position as the Ind_(t1), wherein SLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)), wherein number of the bits at the set position is K_(t0), wherein number of the bits at the remaining position is K_(t), wherein K_(t0)+K_(t)=K_(t,max), wherein K_(t,max) is a length of a bit sequence of Ind_(t,max), and wherein the Ind_(t,max) denotes a maximal value of the Ind_(t).
 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the obtaining the combined index Ind_(SLF) comprises selecting, in a bit sequence with a length being K_(t,max), a split index of the Ind_(t) to participate in a combination for a vector t providing a split index to participate in the combination, wherein the split index at least comprises a value of highest two bits.
 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the further splitting comprises: splitting the combined index Ind_(SLF) into T1 recombined indexes Ind_(t0′) according to a set value range, wherein T1 is less than or equal to number of vectors generating the combined index, wherein a value range of at least one Ind_(t0′) is greater than or equal a value range of the split index of a corresponding vector t, wherein the split index participates in a combination, wherein a value range of at least one Ind_(t0′) is less than or equal the value range of the split index of the corresponding vector t, wherein the split index participates in another combination; combining each recombined index and an uncombined split index of a corresponding vector; encoding the combined each recombined index and an uncombined split index of a corresponding vector; and encoding an uncombined split index of the vector when the vector without having an allocated recombined index exists.
 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the splitting the combined index into T1 recombined indexes Ind_(t0′) according to a set value range comprises splitting a total length K_(SLF) of the bit sequence of the combined index into T1 sections according to a set length, wherein a value of each section corresponds to one Ind_(t0′), wherein the K_(SLF) is the length of the bit sequence of an Ind_(SLF,max), and wherein the Ind_(SLF,max) denotes a maximal value of the Ind_(SLF).
 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the splitting the Ind_(t) into the two split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to the set factor SLF_(t) comprises: selecting in the bit sequence with the length being K_(t,max), a value of K_(t0) bits starting from highest bit of the Ind_(t) as the Ind_(t0); selecting a value of remaining bits as the Ind_(t1), wherein SLF_(t)=2̂(K_(t)), wherein K_(t0)+K_(t)=K_(t,max), wherein the K_(t,max) is a length of a bit sequence of the Ind_(t,max), wherein the Ind_(t,max) denotes a maximal value of the Ind_(t), wherein Ind_(t0) of a vector t that needs to provide a split index is selected as a base to obtain the combined index Ind_(SLF), wherein the splitting the total length K_(SLF) of the bit sequence of the combined index into the T1 sections according to the set length comprises splitting the K_(SLF) according to the K_(t0) value used by the vector t generating the combined index, and wherein number of bits split by each Ind_(t0′) is less than or equal to the value of K_(t0) used by corresponding vector t.
 12. The method according to claim 1, wherein encoding the combined index Ind_(SLF) comprises: comparing the combined index Ind_(SLF); adjusting a threshold value THR, wherein THR≤2̂(K_(SLF))−Ind_(SLF,max), wherein the K_(SLF) is a length of a bit sequence of the Ind_(SLF,max), and wherein the Ind_(SLF,max) denotes a maximal value of the Ind_(SLF); encoding the Ind_(SLF) by using a first number of encoding bits when the Ind_(SLF) is less than the THR; encoding the Ind_(SLF) added with an offset value THR₀ by using a second number of encoding bits when the Ind_(SLF) is not less than the THR, wherein THR≤THR₀≤2̂(K_(SLF))−Ind_(SLF,max), wherein the first number is less than the second number, wherein the second number is less than or equal to the K_(SLF), and wherein the first number and the second number are both positive integers; and encoding other uncombined split indices.
 13. A vector joint pulse encoder working on a CELP (code excited linear prediction) model for encoding a voice signal, comprising: a processor; a memory in communication with the processor containing computer instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to: calculate an encoding index Ind_(t) of each vector from a plurality of vectors, wherein the each vector is determined based on the voice signal, wherein a subscript t denotes a t^(th) vector and t∈[0, T−1], and wherein T represents number of vectors and is an integer greater than or equal to 2; split the Ind_(t) at least once into two split indexes Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) according to a set factor SLF_(t), wherein the set factor SLF_(t) is a set split factor SLF for the t^(th) vector that varies according to the t^(th) vector, wherein the set factor SLF_(t) is a positive integer, wherein the Ind_(t0) denotes a serial number of an interval to which the Ind_(t) belongs, wherein the Ind_(t1) denotes a serial number of the Ind_(t) in the interval to which the Ind_(t) belongs, wherein a length of the interval is not greater than the SLF_(t), and wherein Ind_(t)≤Ind_(t0)×SLF_(t)+Ind_(t1); and obtain a combined index Ind_(SLF) based on a split index of at least one vector and a split index of other vector for a further splitting if any of the Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) is uncombined yet, and encoding the final output of the previous steps if all of the Ind_(t0) and Ind_(t1) is combined.
 14. The encoder according to claim 13, wherein the computer instructions that when executed by the processor cause the encoder further to: split the combined index into T1 recombined indexes Ind_(t0′) according to a set value range, wherein T1 is less than or equal to number of vectors generating the combined index, wherein a value range of at least one Ind_(t0′) is greater than or equal a value range of the split index, participating in a combination, of a corresponding vector t, and wherein a value range of at least one Ind_(t0′) is less than or equal the value range of the split index, participating in another combination, of the corresponding vector t; and combine each recombined index and an uncombined split index of a corresponding vector respectively and then perform encoding; and encode an uncombined split index of the vector when a vector without having an allocated recombined index exists. 